A somewhat biased view on China…
The fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar Calendar is the day of the Dragon Boat Festival.
This festival commemorates the suicide by drowning of the Chinese poet Qu Yuan. The Poet committed suicide after getting disgusted about the corruption of the Chu (楚) (722-481 BCE) government. Qu Yuan was known to be a good man and the local people decided to prevent the fishes from eating his body. Therefore, they provided food to the fishes and tried to scared them using boats with a Dragon Head and noisy drums.
That’s why every year, Chinese people organize Dragon Boats races and eat Zongzi (粽子, zòngzi), glutinous rice packed in bamboo leaves.
June 1st is the International Children’s Day in numerous countries.
The origin of the ICD is quite unclear but one of the possible origins is interesting…
The first ever celebrated ICD was during the the World Conference for the Wellbeing of Children in Geneva, Switzerland in 1925. In 1925, the Chinese consul-general in San Francisco gathered a number of Chinese orphans to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festiva (端午节, Duan Wu Jie). That year, the Festival happened to be on June 1st, and also coincided with the conference in Geneva.
Links
Wikipedia - Dragon Boat Festival
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